Digi-Key's Web UI is really intimidating.

Martin_H

During my first incarnation with electronics Radio Shack carried things like quad nand gates and D flip flops. When I got back into it a few years ago I found those days were long past. So I've been buying my harder to find components from eBay, Parallax, Modern Device, NKC, and Wulfden. They're used to consumers coming in a buying parts, so they're user friendly, and this has worked well.

But for a new project I want to buy a few IC's that are less common. I'm lucky because I have the Digi-key part number, so I should be OK with those. But I figured I might want to buy a few more parts I might need (pin headers, machine pins, capacitors) that Radio Shack won't have to save future shipping.

But man is their search function unfriendly. I want to buy 3 radial electrolytic capacitors at 47 μF 25V to go with some voltage regulators I already have. But how to find them?

Ron Czapala

Try searching "47uf capacitor" and then select Aluminum

WBA Consulting

Their UI is definitely not the best, but you can learn the quirks easily in time. The main roadblock is finding a category to start in so that you are given filters to help in your search.

From the main page, click on the "Product Index" link. There you will find an acceptable-level categorized list of items. Under "Capacitors", select "Aluminum". This will lead you to a page with sorting filters at the top that can be used to narrow down your search by value, package type, and working voltage. After you select your filters, click on the "Apply Filters" button. Here's a tip, right above the "Apply Filters" button is an "In Stock" checkbox. I always check that box unless I am just searching for details. I hate finding the perfect part only to find out it is a non-stocked, MOQ item.

Using 47uf, 25v, and radial as filters under the aluminum caps category, I came up with 27 results.

Martin_H

OK thanks, that helped. The other thing I found is that if you select multiple filter criteria at the same time their filter bombs out. You have to do it one at a time. The price on the caps is really good, it doesn't take a big order to make up for the shipping.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Martin_H wrote:

The other thing I found is that if you select multiple filter criteria at the same time their filter bombs out.

That happens when they don't list anything that satisfies the multiple criteria. BTW, I always start my searches there by by checking "In Stock", "Lead-free", and "RoHS-compliant". Also, be sure to take advantage of their new sort-by-price feature. They've done it right.

Being as how DigiKey no longer prints paper catalogs, their website is the only window into their product line. So it pays to spend some time with the Search function to learn its ins and outs. Also, it's a great way to get quick access to datasheets, rather than using Google, which tends to return links to the virtually useless datasheets.com and other sites of that ilk.

Finally, if you're looking for stock on a part or want to compare prices, http://www.findchips.com is your friend.

-Phil

Martin_H

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »

That happens when they don't list anything that satisfies the multiple criteria. BTW, I always start my searches there by by checking "In Stock", "Lead-free", and "RoHS-compliant". Also, be sure to take advantage of their new sort-by-price feature.

Thanks for that tip. I wish they had a feature to exclude items with a minimum purchase of 8000.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Martin_H wrote:

I wish they had a feature to exclude items with a minimum purchase of 8000.

That's where the sort on price feature comes in. When you click the little blue up-arrow in the price column, it will ask you what quantity price you want to sort on, and list them accordingly, from least expensive, to most expensive.

-Phil

WBA Consulting

Once you have a manufacturers part number, you can also plug it in at oemstrade.com to check who else has it and for what price.

~phil: The funny thing about Digikey's price sorting feature is that it was not available until someone created a script for Greasemonkey so that you could do price sorting on their site. Once that script became popular, Digikey caught on to it's use and realized they were getting an increase in sales after the script was ran on their site. Hence, they added the sort feature to the price column.

frank freedman

Google the part you are after all distributors will usually show up. If it is on digikey or nerawk elex(aka element 14) it will usually link to the catalog enrty. Sometimes you can make it back up to a higher level of selections. Newark does still have a catalog. Typically spends about a week or so taking uf desk space until final disposition in the round file. The fun ones are those you are tryiing to cross only to find them to be custom and the mfr can not reveal specs or sell them contractuallly.

Lawson

You can also effectively exclude the bulk reels/trays by selecting "cut tape" "tube" and "bulk" as the the packaging filter.

Lawson